King’s College London Facilitates Cancer Partnerships Across Sub-Saharan Africa

Members of the Global Oncology Group based at King’s played a major role at the 2023 African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC), promoting both current and new partnerships in cancer care research across Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as sponsoring insightful panel discussions.

At the conference, a range of King’s partnerships were presented including the Global Oncology Group’s work with AORTIC assessing the cancer research landscape of the African continent.

Engaging extensively with collaborators, the Institute of Cancer Policy and King’s Health Partnership team planned a large ‘surgical oncology capacity and capability week’ with colleagues from MD Anderson (USA) in Zambia. The Global Oncology Group (GOG) will showcase their ongoing research in surgical oncology, particularly on simulations using virtual reality as a training tool for surgery and discuss key research and capacity building priorities for Zambia.

This exciting initiative builds on our long-term research work in surgical oncology with Zambian colleagues particularly the use of virtual reality surgical simulation as adjunct to improving skills.”

Professor Richard Sullivan

The conference also saw the election of King’s-based Global Oncology Group strategic director Dr Julie Torode as the vice-President of Europe on the AORTIC Board. Dr Torode will work with the board to promote European partnerships within AORTIC and, more broadly, cancer research based in Africa.

As an AORTIC partner, the Global Oncology Group also sponsored two panels. The first one, co-sponsored with City Cancer Challenge, explored challenges around quality indicators within cancer care that measure the effectiveness and quality of life from treatments. The panel boasted contributions from many prestigious speakers, including GOG co-director Dr Ajay Aggarwal.

The second panel focused on the Common Sense Oncology movement, which aims to promote more patient-centred cancer care, as well as make its delivery more equitable. Panellists led by GOG’s partners at Queen’s University in Kingston discussed how such principles from the movement can be applied across different African countries.